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Barnes & Noble Just Fired Another CEO

posted by mrpg on Thursday July 05 2018, @07:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the I-want-the-autobiography dept.

Apparition writes:

Barnes & Noble just fired CEO Demos Parneros after fourteen months on the job.

Barnes & Noble said Tuesday that it has fired CEO Demos Parneros for violating company policies.

The company did not specify exactly which policies were violated. It did say, however, that Parneros' termination "is not due to any disagreement with the Company regarding its financial reporting, policies or practices or any potential fraud relating thereto."

Parneros will not receive any severance and is no longer a director on its board, the company said in its statement. Barnes & Noble said it fired Parneros under the advice of its law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

Barnes & Noble said it will begin its search for a new CEO and that it has tapped a group of leaders to run the company in the interim. That group includes chief financial officer Allen Lindstrom, chief merchandising officer Tim Mantel and vice president of stores Carl Hauch.

Parneros joined the company in 2016 and was named CEO in 2017. He was previously president of Staples' North American stores and online.

Barnes & Noble's prior CEO was Ronald Boire, who lasted eight months on the job before being fired.

Previously: Barnes & Noble's "Bloody Monday"
Barnes & Noble Reports Holiday Revenues Down"
Barnes & Noble Pivots to Books

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Apparition on Thursday July 05 2018, @10:31AM (4 children)

    by Apparition (6835) on Thursday July 05 2018, @10:31AM (#702912) Journal

    A CEO fired and removed from the board without warning and without a severance package makes me think that there may be shenanigans involved. This is also like the fifth CEO Barnes & Noble has had in the past six years, IIRC.

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday July 05 2018, @10:59AM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Thursday July 05 2018, @10:59AM (#702918) Journal

    I was thinking that the "pivot to books" wasn't working until I saw the "violating company policies" bit. Another Krzanich-like ousting?

    https://marketrealist.com/2018/07/behind-the-june-21-resignation-of-intel-ceo-brian-krzanich [marketrealist.com]
    https://seekingalpha.com/article/4183500-intel-3-failures-brian-krzanich-part-1 [seekingalpha.com]
    https://seekingalpha.com/article/4184763-intel-3-failures-brian-krzanich-part-2 [seekingalpha.com]

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  • (Score: 2) by zocalo on Thursday July 05 2018, @11:01AM (2 children)

    by zocalo (302) on Thursday July 05 2018, @11:01AM (#702919)
    Absolutely, my first thought was that they specifically excluded things that might apply to bribery, embezzlement and other financial malfeasance, so something of a more "personal" nature seems likely. However, note that the wording "is not due to any disagreement with the Company regarding..." actually doesn't rule that out; it could just mean that Parneros didn't disagree when confronted with allegations of whatever malfeasance he's accused of and agreed to go quietly rather than face legal action. I think B&N, or more likely their law firm, is trying to make us think one thing, while being careful not to explicitly rule out something else that is the actual reason for the departure. Still, unless the board is knowingly complicit in trying to cover something up, it can't be *that* bad or they'd need to notify the SEC and shareholders, right?
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    • (Score: 3, Funny) by FatPhil on Thursday July 05 2018, @11:54AM (1 child)

      by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Thursday July 05 2018, @11:54AM (#702929) Homepage
      Fucked his PA?
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      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by zocalo on Thursday July 05 2018, @02:01PM

        by zocalo (302) on Thursday July 05 2018, @02:01PM (#702972)
        Yeah, that was my first thought given the stated facts (sexual misconduct of some kind, anyway, not necessarily so specific), but that doesn't really warrant the carefully worded bit about no disagreement over financials when the traditional standard euphamism of "for family reasons" and no mention of the lack of severance would have done - they definitely felt the need to let anyone paying attention know this was down to something Parneros did. If I had to guess, I'd go with it being more of an ethical rather than legal issue somehow connected with finances, and they're mostly trying to avoid any reputation damage to B&N. That doesn't necessarily preclude banging his PA as part of those activities, of course.
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